The Changing of the Guard: President Clinton and the Security of Taiwan (review)

Abstract

Reviews 181 Martin L. Lasater. The Changing ofthe Guard: President Clinton and the Security ofTaiwan. Boulder, San Francisco, and Oxford: Westview Press, 1995. ix, 270 pp. Hardcover $44.95, isbn 0-8133-8806-6. The strategic and commercial value ofTaiwan in modern times has attracted the interest offoreign powers ever since the beginning ofthe Opium War in the late 1830S. The island's geographic location in the South China Sea and the enticement ofcoal, camphor, and agricultural products, as well as confrontations between shipwrecked mariners and hostile tribal groups, captured the attention primarily ofthe United States, Great Britain, France, and Japan in the nineteenth century. After a half-century ofJapanese colonization (1895-1945), followed by anotiier half-century ofNationalist Chinese governance, Taiwan continues to maintain a prominent position in Big Power strategies. Although Taiwan has long been the focus ofinternational controversy and symbolizes a divided China, the end ofthe Cold War and the island's achievement of considerable wealth accompanied by a free-market economy and democratic government have altered the island's political oudook and potential disposition . By the 1990s the political and diplomatic conditions surrounding Taiwan had changed dramatically since 1949, when the U.S. Departments of State and Defense feuded over whether Taiwan was sufficiendy important to be a primary security interest and, if so, die extent to which the United States would use force to defend fhe beleaguered island. Unfortunately, at that time die differences became marred by an acrimonious dispute between Secretary ofState Dean G. Acheson and Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson, which was exacerbated by emotional public debates in the political arena.1 Nevertheless, the legacy ofthose debates is the fundamental issue ofthe unification of die Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan widi the People's Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland, signifying a thread of continuity from the nation's division in 1949 to the present. There is also continuity in U.S. policy with regard to Taiwan, more clearly established by the Mutual Defense Treaty (1954), as evidenced by American advocacy ofthe island's security, peaceful unification, and stability through economic growth. The diesis advanced by Martin L. Lasater in his insightful account of Taiwan's contemporary position in the international affairs of East Asia is that maintaining the security ofTaiwan, threatened in 1995 by the increased power of the PRC and a growing interest in independence on Taiwan, is more essential© 1996 by University now than ever before. Consequentiy, he urges the administration of President Bill ofHawai'i PressClinton to give paramount attention to expanding the commitment ofthe United States to die security ofTaiwan. Lasater, a specialist on U.S. policy in East Asia, has been consistent in his emphasis on the importance ofTaiwan's security in 182 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. i, Spring 1996 maintaining a balance of power in the western Pacific, having authored and edited seven earlier books on Taiwan.2 In this current account, Lasater examines Clinton's China policy in general and his administration's Taiwan policy in particular , giving close attention to U.S. relations with the PRC and Taiwan, as well as the PRCs relations with Taiwan. Throughout his analysis, Lasater makes a strong case for what he believes to be the essential need for enhancing Taiwan's security, namely to maintain peace and stability in the area through an adequate defense, democracy, free trade, and economic prosperity. While Lasater makes every reasonable effort to present a balanced evaluation based on a fair enunciation ofthe views of each component of the Taiwan issue (i.e., the United States, PRC, and ROC), he clearly favors a U.S. contribution to the security ofTaiwan but expresses his concern for the worsening of U.S.-PRC relations. The tension in this relationship has been due in part to the PRCs poor human rights record, the sale of arms to the Middle East, Chinese goods made by prison labor, and goods labeled as made in odier countries shipped to die United States. While China remains critical ofwhat it considers to be American interference in the internal affairs ofa sovereign nation, Lasater identifies areas in which the two countries continue to maintain mutual agreement. China...